The Gift that Gives
by MisaEyes
Summary: From his father, Stiles gets a sense of humor and fierce protectiveness of those he loves. From his mother, he inherited something a little different. Also known as the one where Stiles is kinda sorta psychic.


**Disclaimer: **Don't own it~

**Warnings:** mild slash, swearing, character death, some spoilers for both seasons, domestic abuse

**A/N: **So this happened. I just wanted to give Stiles psychic powers, I guess. Probably really OOC, but haters gonna hate. Also, Stiles' parents haven't really been given names, as far as I know, so I made some up. No beta, all mistakes are mine. Yay failure!

* * *

The first time Louise Stilinksi meets Melissa McCall, she doesn't even register on her radar. It's nothing personal; they're both working the ER, and there was a terrible accident on one of the major roads. They run by each other, and every time, Louise feels a tug in her lower abdomen that she ignores until she actually has time to think about anything other than saving the people they can.

The second time, however, is after she knows she's pregnant. Well, she's _known_ for the past week or so, but now she knows. She meets Melissa in the empty break room, where she's trying to make the ancient coffee machine give her hot water for tea. Louise feels the tugging sensation once more, and this time she doesn't ignore it.

They become fast friends, even though it's apparent they have nothing in common. Melissa confesses she's been pregnant for three months now, and Louise knows, because she had already _known_. They bond over first-child jitters and help each other at work to avoid as much stress as possible when working as a nurse.

Louise and Melissa introduce each other to their respective husbands, and when Louise shakes Melissa's husband's hand, she feels aches and pains somewhere deep in her bones and a sadness so deep, she isn't sure she'll shake it.

"Honey? Are you alright?" John asks, and she smiles at her husband, rubbing her stomach.

"Sorry, I must have zoned out," she says, and she tries to avoid eye contact with Melissa's husband for the rest of the night.

When the Stilinskis return home, John goes to bed before her. He has an early shift in the morning, and he's still young and feels the need to impress his higher-ups. She's sad that she has a hand in changing him into the weary man he'll become. Louise stands in the kitchen and watches him go, rubbing her stomach absentmindedly.

"Oh, darling, he's going to be a handful," she tells her son once John is out of earshot. "Strong, stubborn, and very protective. You chose well."

She starts on the dishes she's been avoiding in the sink and goes on.

...-...-...

"What are we going to name him?" John asks, holding her hand and resting his forehead against her sweaty one. Louise smiles at her husband and feels a bit like crying. She knows it doesn't matter what name they give him; he'll have one of his own devising. She lets her husband stroke her hair and pretends she's thinking about it.

"Let's name him after my father." John's hand freezes. "I know, it's an awful name, but he's going to be so much like him." She shuts her mouth quickly, realizing she's said too much, but John merely smiles at her.

"Motherly instincts telling you that already?" he teases.

Louise huffs, blowing a loose stray of hair out of her face. "I carried him for nine months. I think I'm entitled to a little motherly instinct."

John laughs.

When they get home, the baby, now named Genim, is curled in John's arms as he tries to say the baby's name. It sounds like gibberish, and Louise can't help but laugh. It can't hurt; their son will get his name at some point, and hurrying it along will only lessen her husband's obvious trouble over it. She nestles into the cushions of their couch, just watching John's adoration for the little boy, and finally takes the plunge.

"Maybe we should give him a nickname," she suggests, and John looks positively relieved.

It takes her another fifteen minutes to exhaust John with obnoxious names before finally saying, "How about Stiles?"

John smiles to himself. "What, now I just know you're being mean."

"No, I'm serious." She kicks his leg gently so she doesn't disturb the sleeping infant.

He thinks it over, staring at their baby's face. Louise is suddenly very aware of how comfortable it is for him to have this baby all on his own, and sadness fills her.

Completely oblivious, John continues to lightly stroke his son's face and nods to himself.

"Stiles it is, then."

...-...-...

Scott and Stiles meet as soon as Louise can manage it. Stiles has been cranky for weeks without seeing Scott. Louise has never seen anything like it, the knowing that Stiles has. It's a little frightening, and she sometimes wishes that her father hadn't passed so she could ask him questions.

In any case, it's on a Tuesday, and Scott's three months mark. Stiles stops whining as soon as they walk into the McCall house and switches back to his lovely baby squeals. Melissa and Louise catch up, letting the babies squirm on the floor in a pile of blankets and safety pillows. Melissa looks the way Louise feels: tired, but so happy it feels like she'll burst.

Stiles falls asleep clutching Scott's shirt in his small fist, and Louise contemplates telling Melissa just how much trouble their boys will be, how lovely, smart, and tiresome they'll grow to become. She doesn't, but when she picks up Stiles, Scott starts complaining immediately.

As Melissa quiets him, she says, "I haven't managed to get him to simply lie on the floor like that in... Well, ever." She eyes Louise and her baby before smiling and adding, "That baby must be magic."

The urge to tell someone has never been so strong, even throughout the time she's been married. But she knows the Rules, and even if she is the last of her line, she has to uphold them for her child's sake. So she smiles, winks, and replies, "It's his Stilinski charm."

Regardless, Melissa sets up another roll-on-the-floor date for the boys, and Louise takes Stiles home, telling him, "You're going to tell that boy everything, aren't you, little rascal?"

...-...-...

The boys are five years old the first time Stiles really lets anything slip, as far as Louise knows. She can't be sure; Stiles tells Scott everything. It wouldn't surprise her if the other boy knows that sometimes Stiles can just _know_ things.

They're playing with cars in a small sandbox, and Melissa and Louise are watching from the patio table. There's a lull in their conversation when she hears Stiles look up at Scott and say, "Your wife's gonna be pretty, like really pretty, like how Mommy looked in her dance-y dress pretty, and you're gonna love her lots."

Scott nods, like it's completely understandable for that to come up in conversation in between making explosion noises for their game.

Encouraged, Stiles gives him a large grin and continues. "You're gonna be super strong, like, like Superman! And gross looking." He wrinkles his nose, and Scott pouts.

"That's not very nice," Scott tells him knowledgeably.

Stiles shrugs, but a serious look comes over his face. "You're gonna be a superhero. I'm gonna marry a superhero too."

Scott cocks his head and bites his lip. "How do you know?"

"Dunno, I just know. Scott, our cars are gonna crash, watch out!"

Melissa is laughing quietly to herself, and Louise forces herself to chuckle. "Got a mouth on him, doesn't he?"

Louise actually does laugh this time. "You don't know the half of it. He told me a story during bath time yesterday that had me in stitches."

Louise recounts the tale and figures out why Stiles chose people like the McCalls.

...-...-...

Stiles is put in the same class as Lydia Martin in second grade, and he _knows_. He can feel how smart, how bright she is, and he knows that she will amongst the women who change history. There's also something about her, something that reminds him of someone he knows or will know.

She strong, and when he tells her she's beautiful on the third day of school, she kicks him and tells him to get lost.

Stiles falls in love instantly.

...-...-...

Scott is ten the first time he calls the house phone crying, asking for Stiles.

"He's asleep, Scott. It's nearly midnight. What's wrong?" she asks, but she arleady knows. Her blood has gone cold, and there are aches in her bones she hasn't felt in more than a decade.

"Mommy and Dad were fighting and, and there was this noise and it got real quiet. I don't know what to do, Mama Stilinski." Scott is crying, and she has to ask.

"Has this happened before, honey?"

"No, maybe. I dunno, Dad doesn't like it when I talk about the fighting." She can see Scott squirming in her mind's eye, and suddenly panic feels her.

Sure enough, the noise of a door slamming into a wall and the telltale sound of Scott dropping the phone tell her it's time. She quickly calls John and tells him to send someone to McCalls' right away. She hangs up on him, ignoring his questions, and goes to get Stiles, only to find he's wearing a coat and is already sliding on his shoes.

Louise doesn't ask how long he's known. She just guides him to the door of the car, and they drive in silence till they reach their destination. Melissa is scrambling around her room, where she's probably taken Scott and barricaded her husband out. The sirens are already loud in the air, and they'll be here soon, but Louise knows she has to get their bags packed to go.

She steps out of the car and tells Stiles, "Stay here." After locking the doors, she opens the front door as silently as possible, ignoring the stench of alcohol that permeates the air. The fourth and eighth step creak, so she avoids those, but the closer to the top she gets, the more she realizes she could run a stampede through the house and Mr. McCall wouldn't care less.

"Baby, I'm so sorry, I was just so angry. You know I'd never hurt Scotty, he's my kid for god's sake. He was just running that damn mouth and-" She stops listening to his slurs and insistent banging on Melissa's bedroom door.

Hoping Melissa's already packing her own bag, Louise moves into Scott's room and begins shoving shirts, shorts, socks, and underwear into a bag she'd brought. When she's done, she waits until the police have taken Mr. McCall out of the house and then walks over to the still-locked door.

John is trying to coax Melissa into opening it with a few other officers, but he doesn't look surprised as Louise jimmies the handle to the left and uses her hip to thrust it open. Melissa does have a bag on the floor next to her, and Scott is curled up in her lap. She sees Louise through her tears, and her sobs begin anew, but Louise is there to hold her and tell her how it'll be okay.

Because it will. It'll take time, and it'll hurt, but it will be fine. She tells her how strong she is and finds herself whispering the secrets of what she _knows_ to Melissa, about her life to be and their sons' incredible stories together, even if she can't understand what Louise is saying through her body wracking cries.

Melissa and Scott spend as much time as they need at the Stilinski home, and they never talk about that night again.

"It's always good to look forwards to the future," Louise says calmly and with a smile during one of the comfortable silences they share.

...-...-...

When Stiles is younger, he thinks he can skip over the long boring parts of his life and skip to the exciting things that will happen, despite what his mom says about Rules. He already _knows_ they're going to happen; why does he have to wait? So, he gets Scott to go help him find a body in the woods.

Stiles is walking with Scott through the woods when he stops and stares.

A girl with dark hair is watching them from behind a tree, her hair knotted up with dirt and bright eyes flashing red. She's baring her teeth at them, but Stiles knows she's nice.

"Hi! I'm Stiles!" he calls, and she tries to hide herself behind the tree some more. "It's okay. We don't care what you are." He doesn't know really what she is, but she feels special, different, powerful.

Scott's head is still twisting left and right, trying to find who Stiles is looking at. Stiles knows he won't find her. She's not here yet, after all.

That doesn't stop Stiles from hearing her answering growl. He nods serenely and shuffles his feet, motioning for Scott to go on without him. After Scott's spent a few minutes looking at Stiles like he's the weirdest kid on Earth, he goes. Stiles turns back to her and tries to smile.

"It's okay. One day, I'll find you."

He turns and runs to find Scott again, understanding why Mom keeps insisting on the Rules.

Even if he thinks he's prepared for the future, it doesn't mean that people he'll share it with are.

...-...-...

Louise passes away on a Tuesday, and Stiles knows she thinks it's ironic. Stiles doesn't tell his father that the last time he'll see his wife is really the last time, and he bikes himself to the hospital a few hours before it happens. Louise has managed to get a few messages jammed into Stiles' head, and he figures she'll be happy to see he's going to follow the Rules.

Stiles holds her hand and tells her about random things that happened at school that day. He pretends it isn't the last day, and so does she, even though he's sure she knows. When he runs out of topics, and they can feel the last few minutes closing in on them, he stops trying. "I don't know if I can do it without you," he whispers, his tears beginning to fall without permission.

She smiles and kisses his knuckles. "You _know_ you will."

Louise doesn't tell him that he has the strongest gift she's seen in a while, and he doesn't tell her that while he _knows_ he will, he also knows he won't ever be the same.

He kisses her forehead, and the machines let out a long, unforgiving cry.

...-...-...

Stiles tries to forget, to ignore what he knows. It's hard, because it's a part of him. He distracts himself anyway possible, to the point that his father takes him to a psychiatrist. He gets a nice diagnosis and a prescription for Adderall.

It helps a little, and now Stiles doesn't have to try too hard to ignore his "gift".

Not much of a gift if it doesn't help him protect the people he loves.

...-...-...

One day, his heart starts pounding in his chest during Math class, and he asks to go to the nurse. His dad comes to pick him up, clearly during his lunch break. Stiles already _knows_, of course, but now he knows.

"You need to start eating healthier," Stiles complains, snatching the bag of fast food from his father.

"You don't get to tell me what to do, squirt," his dad snaps back and reaches to take the bag, but Stiles yanks it out of his reach.

At a red light, they have a small stare off. His dad must be able to see something in his eyes, because he sighs.

"Fine, but you're making me something when we get home."

...-...-...

Stiles wakes up breathing hard, a phantom pain around his middle, and he turns on the police radio scanner. He doesn't really need to hear it, but the noise helps cement him in the now as he packs a flashlight and gets dressed.

He turns it off and starts heading off to Scott's before he's really registered it. He feels numb when he parks a little down the street and considers not bringing Scott. For the first time since that day when he tried to skip ahead, he considers breaking the Rules.

Clenching his hand around the flashlight, he looks up at the sky and states, "Better to look forward to the future, right, Mom?"

He gets Scott to finish what they started the last time they'd been walking around in the woods.

...-...-...

They're in the woods again, and really? They're becoming predictable, and Stiles is tripping over hidden tree roots while Scott is trying to find the other half of the girl. Not that he knows it's a girl, or that Stiles has already met her, kind of. Stiles makes the lycanthropy joke, because might as well get him used to the idea now, even if he does think Stiles is just kidding. It's boring, usually, knowing things when everyone around you is trying to figure shit out.

The moment he sees Derek Hale moving towards them with purpose, however, his heart starts pounding, his palms start sweating, and his first thought is _fucking figures_. He feels like he's in second grade all over again, except this is worse, because Derek Hale doesn't shine like brilliance or feel like opportunity as Lydia does. He is shadows, mourning, and guilt. He is a survival instinct, and something in Stiles responds like he's been waiting around for this exact moment.

It scares the hell out of him.

Derek throws Scott his inhaler, and Stiles _knows_, he knows that Derek doesn't remind him of anybody, because Lydia reminds Stiles of fucking Derek, even if technically he met Lydia before Derek, but he's _known_ Derek since he was young, Jesus.

Derek walks away, and Stiles calms, telling himself that while he _knows_ Derek, he probably will never know him.

He's also knows he's wrong.

...-...-...

Stiles stops taking the Adderall sometime between Derek nearly dying from a magic bullet and Scott almost killing everyone in their school. He's not sure it's a conscious decision, but when he does realize he's stopped, he sees the logic.

It takes times for the medicine to be completely cleansed out of his system, but fucking christ, he hasn't felt this exposed to everything since before his mom died. He feels like live wire or naked nerve. The slightest touch or a breeze and he can feel it all. It sucks, but he needs it.

He bares the pain, because he knows he needs the gift to protect the ones he loves.

...-...-...

No one notices that he's usually in the know before things happen, not at first. Stiles tries to hide it, he does. He knows what it's like when they do know. The one time Scott had figured it out, although he doesn't remember now, he had asked Stiles nothing but questions for weeks. Stiles had eventually just started telling him, "Scott, I really don't know, okay!"

That had been the end of that.

He tries to keep it under wraps, but somehow, Derek must figure it out.

At least it took him a while.

Erica Reyes is holding the piece of his Jeep in her hands, and he hadn't really been expecting that, which says something.

"Surprised?" she asks, and he can't help but narrow his eyes.

"What? That you're an evil bitch?" Stiles knows she isn't, that she's just a little girl who's on a power high that'll come bring her crashing down soon enough, but he feels put out. But at the same time, he also has a crawling feeling under his skin that sings, _Derek knows_.

"Oh, baby, I'm not evil." Then she uses his car part to knock him out for the count.

Nope, she's evil.

...-...-...

It isn't until after he says, "Abomination," that Stiles realizes that he actually knows Derek now.

He isn't sure whether to rejoice or cry, but it's not like he has time to do either, so he doesn't. Instead, he buckles himself down for the ride on the shitstorm that's been heading their ways since the night Stiles had set out to get Scott.

Strangely enough, when Derek's eyes connect with his and his heart aches for him, Stiles can't find it in himself to regret the decision.

...-...-...

His head is throbbing, and he still feels kind of woozy, but when a sharp pain starts in his arm, he knows Derek's in trouble. He also knows that this is it, what he's been trying to avoid, even if he's kind of always _known_ he couldn't.

_You're going to tell that boy everything, aren't you, little rascal?_

_Yes._

He takes Scott home and tells him to shut up and just listen.

Scott doesn't really take it as well as he'd hope. He's angry and frustrated, understandably so. Stiles feels the same way, but whereas he's had the Rules ingrained into his very DNA, Scott thinks of them as excuses.

"You could have stopped us that night! You could have made it so none of this would have happened!" Scott's eyes are flashing yellow, and it's been so long since he's lost control, Stiles forgets to be afraid.

"No! It would have happened, Scott, it just would of happened differently! What's going to happen will fucking happen, whether you want it to or not!" Stiles shouts back, and he wants to smack sense into his best friend.

Scott is growling, and Stiles is very aware that he needs to try a new approach.

"Listen, if we hadn't gone into the woods that night, we don't know what would have happened. We will never know what happened. What we need to focus on is how to get out of the mess that's here and now. And how to avoid up and coming clusterfucks, if we can." Stiles smiles as he adds, "Better to look forward to the future."

It has the desired effect, and Scott calms down. He takes a deep breath, and Stiles knows they'll be okay.

"Let's do this."

...-...-...

It goes to hell, of course it does. Stiles does what he can to be helpful and not harmful. It happens the way it happens, whether it was supposed to or not.

Bridges have been torn apart, and things feel more like they're burning rather than calming down, but the way Stiles sees it, the fires burning, but at least it isn't spreading anymore.

Stiles is helping patch up the Pack, along with Lydia, Jackson, and Danny, who'd been yanked into their mess by a death grip on his leg. Erica's trying not to cry, and Stiles feels her pain intimately. Isaac's a mess too, and Stiles does what his mom used to do when she could tell someone was hurting where she couldn't use bandages to fix it.

He sits in between them and hunches over, breathing deep. He can feel their panic as they both awkwardly try to find a way to console them. Isaac starts rubbing circles in his back, and Erica runs her hand over his spiky hair.

Lydia seems to know what he's doing, but she doesn't say anything as she walks over and starts comforting Erica, Isaac, and Stiles as well. Boyd has a tight grip on Isaac's arm, and when he moves to sit in front of their group, his calm seems to transfer to the others.

Eventually, they're all piled together, not speaking but saying everything they need to. Stiles wishes Allison was here to join in. He think they could solve a lot of problems this way.

When Derek comes in to their train compartment, he basically sees a huge puppy pile with Stiles in the center. He seems surprised at first, before his lips start twitching. Then he's laughing, and Stiles has never heard a laugh that's felt so much like a reward. It makes the butterflies in his stomach lift his heart, and he's laughing too.

Suddenly, they're all laughing, because it hurts, and they hurt, but they'll be okay.

Stiles knows they will, even if he had already _known_ it.

...-...-...

Once everyone has gone to their respective homes to crash, Stiles and Derek go to his house. He didn't exactly offer Derek a place to stay, but Derek gets into the passenger's side anyway, and Stiles wonders if Derek has the gift too.

"So, how does it work?" the Alpha asks, and Stiles revises his previous thought.

He shrugs, tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel. He's still shaking and shouldn't be driving, but he needs to get home somehow. "It's kind of like... Just there. Like common sense."

"So instead of actual common sense, you get to know the future?"

"Is that humor? Are you trying to be humorous?" Stiles asks incredulously.

"No, you honestly have no common sense. What the hell possessed you to-" Derek's eyes are flashing red, and Stiles' hand automatically reaches over and places itself on his neck.

"Stop." Stiles waits until they're in his driveway before he meets Derek's wide eyes. He guesses it's for playing with the hair at the nape of Derek's neck, but it's really freakin' soft, okay. It shouldn't be that soft if he doesn't want someone touching it.

"How long have you known about _this_?" Derek asks, his voice rough, and Stiles doesn't have to ask to know what he's referring to. He reaches over and grabs one of Derek's hands, lacing their fingers, instead.

"My whole life pretty much, I think," he answers honestly. When he looks up, Derek's eyes are burning into him, and he smiles in response. Derek gives him a small quirk of his lips, and it's really all Stiles could ever ask for.

He knows there's going to be plenty of time for other things once they get into the house, anyway.


End file.
